MultiFEBE: An open-source multi-domain integrated finite element and boundary element software

Abstract

This paper presents MultiFEBE: an open-source solver for multi-domain integrated Finite Element and Boundary Element models for linear static and time harmonic analysis based on an integration of several BEM-FEM models for soil-shell and soil-beam interaction. The code, developed in the University Institute for Intelligent Systems and Numerical Applications in Engineering (SIANI) of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria [1], allows the static and time-harmonic analysis of many different problem typologies that involve coupling of bounded or unbounded three-dimensional regions with structural elements (beams and shells) [2, 3]. The code allows to model bounded and unbounded potential, viscoelastic and poroelastic three-dimensional regions using the Boundary Element Method; and potential and viscoelastic bounded three-dimensional regions, or structural shell and beam elements, through the Finite Element Method. The code is specially suited to model static and time-harmonic problems that involve coupling between the different types of regions or elements mentioned above, and its more salient features are those related to the modelling of problems in which thin shell structures interact with solid regions, such as in the case of bucket and pile foundations. This paper summarizes very briefly the models and numerical methods implemented in the code, and illustrates its use and capabilities through different application examples.